Description

London.

C/U shot of a drawing of a pig's head. M/S of a woman drawing in front of a board covered in drawings. She places her drawing on the wall with the others. M/S of a man sitting at his desk - woman is standing next to him and board is behind her. Woman gives the man a drawing. The man puts the drawing in front of him. C/U shot of the man's face. C/U shot of the man's hands drawing a pig. M/S of the man as he works. C/U shot of the man's face as he works. He seems to be changing his facial expressions while working. M/S of the man's face in the mirror in front of him!? Man's reflection shows anger. C/U shot of the drawing of the pig with same angry expression on its face. The man is John Hallas, producer of the first British feature cartoon film 'The Animal Farm' based on a famous George Orwell's novel.

Succession of shots showing Mr Hallas drawing a happy pig with help of the mirror. Looks silly but effective. C/U shot of Mr Hallas' hands waving the papers with pig's different facial expressions showing how the cartoon will be created.

M/S of background artist Digby Turpin as he paints. C/U shot of Mr Turpin's face as he paints. C/U shot of the painting. M/S of a woman sitting at he desk as the other woman comes to her. C/U shot of the drawing of the animals. Woman is Alma Coles and she works in the tracing department where the drawings are transferred on the sheets of transparent plastic called 'cells'. Each cell is one frame of the picture. C/U shot of Ms Coles' hand transferring the drawing on the cell.

C/U shot of the face of a woman working. Camera tilts down to show her hands mixing paint. C/U shot of the woman's hands painting. Camera tilts to show the woman's face. C/U shot of the 'cell' being painted. M/S of Mr Hallas looking at the plane blue sheet. C/U shot of "putting the picture together". Layers of painted 'cells' are placed one over another to finally have one frame of the picture made. Film finishes with the scene from the cartoon which matches the frame.